'A Gamblers Guide to Dying' weighs up the odds of living an extraordinary life.
The ultimate all-or-nothing wager, made by a cancer patient facing down a one-month-to-live prognosis, becomes the springboard for a stimulating meditation on the vicissitudes of a life lived in hope.
The possibly true story of Scottish playwright Gary McNair's grandfather is presented from multiple, often contradictory viewpoints, making it impossible
to untangle truth and fiction.
At the heart of the story is a touching relationship between a schoolboy and his grandfather — a lively raconteur whose wildly embellished stories provide relief from the boredom of life in a working-class area of Glasgow.
The grandson is initiated into a systematic method of placing a long-odds bet that requires correct predictions for the scores of all 20 of the English Premiere League's weekly games. The excitement and disappointments of these wagers become the cornerstone for an appealing life philosophy in which the spirit of optimism is deployed as a weapon in a relentless battle against fate.
There is plenty of down-to-earth humour along with theoretical musings about free-will and predestination as the gambler and his devoted grandson wrestle with the great philosophical question: "How should we live our lives?"
